Combined latch means and door fasteners for hinge supported door structures



April 9, 1957 A. E. PAWLAK 2,788,067

COMBINED LATCH MEANS AND DOOR FASTENERS FOR HINGE SUPPORTED DOORSTRUCTURES 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 17, 1953 smug- 20 0.0 0

Invenibr: flnifion IIPuwYak :23 /y 1 April 9, 1957 A. E. PAWLAK2,788,067

COMBINED LATCH MEANS AND DOOR FASTENERS FOR HINGE SUPPORTED DOORSTRUCTURES Filed July 17, 1953 s Sheets-Sheet 2 32 l 37 55 A -.A

Inven/ 0 r April 9, 1957 PAwLAK 2,788,067

COMBINED LATCH MEANS AND DOOR FASTENERS FOR HINGE SUPPORTED DOORSTRUCTURES Filed July 17, 1953 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 1 y /W I If InVeni or:.flnilv y ZZBaWYQ/ZC.

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nited States Patent COMBINED LATCH MEANS AND DOOR FAS- TENERS FOR HINGESUPPORTED DOOR STRUCTURES Anthony E. Pawlak, Berwyn, 11]., assignor toW. H. Miner, Inc., Chicago, 11]., a corporation of Delaware ApplicationJuly 17, B53, Serial No. 368,715

Claims. (Cl. 160-481) This invention relates to improvements in combinedlatch means and door fasteners for hinge supported door structurescomposed of a pair of articulated door members, and more particularly acombined latch means and door fastener wherein the latch means isdesigned for positively holding one of the pair of door members of thedoor structure against opening movement while the other of said membersis being swung to open position.

The main object of the invention is to provide an improved latch meansand fastener of the character indicated for hinged doors, composed of apair of articulated members, one member of which is hinged to the doorpost and has the other member hinged to the outer edge thereof forswinging movement to open position independently of the same, whereinthe latch means of the same serves to fasten, in closed position, themember which is hinged to the door post to prevent accidental opening ofthe same, together with the other member of said hinged door.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved combinedlatch means and door fastener for hinged doors, composed of a doormember hinged to the door post, and a second door member swinginglysupported on the first named member by means of a hinge having a hingeleaf fixed to the outer edge of said first named member and a leaf fixedto said second named member and provided with an integral keeperengaging door fastener cam member engageable with a fixed keeper forforcing said first named door member open and closed, wherein the latchmeans of the combined latch means and door fastener comprises a movablelatch element and a cooperating fixed catch element carried,respectively, by the leaf of said hinge which is fixed to the firstnamed door member and the fixed keeper of the door fastener.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a combined latchmeans and door fastener, as set forth in the preceding paragraph,wherein the latch element is automatically engageable with the catch tolock, in closed position, the door member which is hinged to the doorpost, and is manually disengageable to permit opening of said last nameddoor member when desired.

Other objects of the invention will more clearly appear from thedescription and claims hereinafter following.

in the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification,

Figure 1 is an elevational view, partly broken away, of the side wall ofa railway refrigerator car, provided with a door opening, closed by aplurality of hinged door members, illustrating my improved combinedlatch means and door fastener in connection therewith.

Figure 2 is a front elevational View, on an enlarged scale, of theimproved means illustrated in Figure 1, showing a portion of theassociated door member and adjacent car wall structure, broken away.

Figure 3 is a top plan view of the combined latch means and doorfastener shown in Figure 2.

enlarged scale, of the improved means illustrated in Figure 2, said viewcorresponding substantially to the irregular line 4-4 of Figure 2.

Figure 5 is a vertical sectional view of the catch element shown inFigures 2 and 3, indicating a portion of the latch element in dottedlines, and illustrating the operation of the latch element as the doormember on which it is mounted is being moved to closed position.

Figure 6 is a top plan view, on an enlarged scale, of the improvedcombined latch means and door fastener, showing portions of the doormembers associated therewith in horizontal section, said sectioncorresponding substantially to the line 6--6 of Figure 1.

Figure 7 is a view similar to Figure 6, showing the outer hinged doormember partly opened.

Figure 8 is a view similar to Figure 6, showing the outer door membercompletely open and folded against the inner door member.

In said drawings, 10 designates a portion of the side Wall of a railwayrefrigerator car, provided with a door opening 11, and closed by ahinged door structure, comprising a hinged door 12, and articulated doormembers 13 and 14 together forming a second hinged door 15 of greatersize than the door 12. The door 12 is swingingly supported at its righthand end on the car wall by the usual hinges 116. The door 12 isequipped with the usual rotary door fastener bar 17 at its left handend,

. which cooperates with a keeper 18. The door member 13, which forms theinner of the articulated members 13 and 14, is swingingly supported atits left hand end by hinges 19-49, and the door member 14, which formsthe outer of the articulated members, is hinged to the outer end of thedoor member 13. The keeper 18 is provided with a pivoted latch plate 2%at its left hand end, which is engageable over the lower right handcorner of the adjacent door member 14 to lock the latter in closedposition.

My improved combined latch means and door fastener comprises broadly ahinge member A, a latch element B carried by the hinge member A, akeeper engaging cam member C carried by the hinge member A, and acombined keeper and catch member D with which the keeper engaging cammember C and the latch element B coopcrate.

The hinge member A and additional hinge members 21 and 22 are employedto swingingly support the door member 14 on the door member 13, thehinge member 21 being of the usual conventional design and the hingemember 22 being particularly designed to function as a door fastenermeans, as hereinafter pointed out.

The hinge member A is located at the lower end portions of the doormembers 13 and 14 and includes a pair of hinge leaves 23 and 24 fixed,respectively, to the door members 13 and 14. The hinge leaf 23 has threeoutwardly projecting, vertically spaced hinge eye portions 252525, andthe hinge leaf 24 has three outwardly projecting, vertically spacedhinge eye members 2626-- 26, which are alternated with the hinge eyes25*25-25 and are connected to the latter by a hinge pin 27, extendingthrough said eyes.

The keeper engaging cam member C depends from the hinge leaf 24, beingformed integral with the lowermost eye member 26. The member C comprisesa horizontally extending radial arm 28, having a crank pin 29 at itsouter end, which is engageable with the combined keeper and catch memberD. The hinge leaf 23 of the hinge member A has a vertically disposedguide sleeve 39 formed integral therewith, the leaf 23 being made widerthan the leaf 24 to accommodate this sleeve thereon. The sleeve 30corresponds in height to the height of the hinge leaf 23. The upper endportion of the sleeve 3b,

which portion is indicated by 31, is of reduced cross sectional size, asshown most clearly in Figures 2 and 4, and the portion of said sleevebelow the reduced upper end portion 31 is of square interior crosssection to present a vertical guideway 32 of square, transverse crosssection for the latch element 13. The reduced upper end portion 31 ofthe sleeve is provided with a vertically disposed, cylindrical bore 33communicating with the upper end of the guideway 32. The bore 33 is ofsmaller size than the guideway 32, thereby providing an abutmentshoulder 34 at the upper end of said guideway surrounding the opening ofthe bore.

The latch element B comprises a head 35 of substantially square,transverse cross section and a central, cylindrical stem 36 of reducedsize upstanding from said head portion and formed integral therewith.The square head 35 of the latch element B slidingly fits within theguideway 32 of the sleeve and the stem 36 slidingly fits the bore 33.The head being of larger size than the stem 36, a transverse abutmentshoulder 37 is presented at the inner end of said head. A helical spring38 is disposed Within the square guideway 32 of the sleeve 30 insurrounding relation with respect to the stem 36, with its opposite endsbearing on the shoulder 34 at the top end of the guideway 32 and theshoulder 37 at the inner end of the head 35 of the latch element B. Thisspring is under sufiicient compression to hold the head 35 normallyprojected. However, the latch element B, as designed, is made ofsufficiently great weight to work by gravity, in case of spring failure.The lower end of the head 35 is beveled oif to present an upwardlyinclined underneath surface 39. At the upper end, the latch element isprovided with a hook-shaped finger piece 40 for manipulating the same.The hook-shaped finger piece 40 is provided with a vertical opening orseat 41 at its lower end, adapted to receive the upper end of the stem36 to which it is secured by a pin 42. The bottom end of the fingerpiece 40 abuts the upper end of the guide sleeve 30 to restrict downwarddisplacement of the latch element B.

The hinge member 22 is located at the top ends of the door members 13and 14 and comprises hinge leaves 43 and 44, which are secured,respectively, to the door members 13 and 14. The hinge leaf 44 issimilar to the hinge leaf 24 of the bottom hinge member A, having akeeper engaging cam member 45 upstanding therefrom, which is identicalwith the cam member C of the hinge member A and has a radial arm with acrank pin at its outer end, corresponding to the arm 28 and pin 29 ofthe cam member C, and also indicated by 28 and 29.

The hinge member 22 differs from the hinge member A in that the latchelement B and the guide therefore are absent, the leaf 43 of the hingemember 22, which leaf is secured to the door member 13, being a plainconventional hinge leaf.

The combined keeper and catch member D is in the form of an elongatedmetal block, and may be a casting. The block member D has securingflanges 46 and 47 at opposite ends by which it is fixed to the side wall10 of the car below the door opening 11, being held in place by bolts58-58 or similar fastening devices, extending through said flanges. Atthe left, as seen in Figures 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8, the combined keeperand catch member D presents a laterally opening keeper pocket 48 withinwhich the cam member C is engageable to force the door member 13,respectively, open and closed when the door member 14 is swung outwardlyand inwardly, the pocket being provided with a curved inner wallpresenting a rearwardly facing front cam face 49 with which the crankpin 29 of the cam member C is engaged when the door member 14 is swunginwardly toward closed position, as shown in Figure 6, to cam the doormember 13 closed and lock the same in that position. At the rear side ofthe pocket, the curved inner wall merges with the front sur' face of theback wall of the member D, which back wall is indicated by 50, andpresents a fiat surface and, to-

gether with the curved inner wall portion at the rear of said pocket,provides a continuous outwardly facing cam surface 51, with which thecrank pin 29 is engaged when the door member 14 is swung outwardly awayfrom the car wall from the position shown in Figure 6 toward that shownin Figure 7, to cam the door member 13 outwardly. The front wall of thepocket 48, which wall presents the cam face 49, is relatively short andbeyond said wall, that is, to the right thereof, the member D isentirely open and the entrance to said pocket is unobstructed, so thatthe door members 13 and 14, when in folded condition, may be swunginwardly to the position shown in Figure 8 without interference, whichwould be had if the member D presented any obstruction whatever in thepath of movement of the crank pin 29 during the time that the doormembers 13 and 14 are thus being swung inwardly. To the left of thepocket 48, as seen in Figures 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8, the member D isprovided with an upwardly directed socket or seat 52, open at itsbottom, which is in vertical alignment with the latch element B when thedoor member 13 is closed, and within which the latch element isengageable to hold the door member 13 against opening. The interior ofthe seat 52 is of substantially rectangular outline, being of greaterwidth than length, that is, of greater dimension from the front to backthan from one end to the other of the length of the car. The front wallof the pocket, which wall is indicated by 53, is thickened at its upperend, that is, bulged outwardly, and presents an inwardly and upwardlyinclined cam face 54 at its top side on which the lower end of the latchelement B is adapted to ride, as indicated in Figure 6, when the doormember 13 is swung inwardly toward closed position. The thickened upperend portion of the wall 53 presents an obstruction to outward movementof the latch element B, as is evident from Figure 4, the same thusforming a catch for the latch element. As seen in Figure 4, sufficientclearance is provided between the wall 53 and the forward side of thelatch element B to permit the door member 13 to be cammed outwardly bythe door member 14 as the latter is swung from the position shown inFigure 6, through the position shown in Figure 7, to that shown inFigure 8, without the latch element encountering the wall 53. As will beevident, the latch element thus prevents accidental opening of the doormember 13 with the door member 14 and must be manually lifted to clearthe catch formed by the wall 53 before the door member 13 can be opened.

A keeper member 55 is provided above the door members 13 and 14 for theupper cam member 45, and this keeper is similar to the member D, withthe exception that it does not have a catch member thereon. In otherwords, the keeper member 55 presents only a cam pocket 56, which is ofthe same design as the cam pocket 48 of the member D and operates in thesame manner.

Assuming that the door 12 and the door members 13 and 14 are closed andlocked, as shown in Figures 1, 2, 4, and 6, in the event that a smalldoor opening is desired, the door 12 only is opened, the usual procedurebeing followed of forcing this door open by operation of the locking bar17 and then manually swinging the door 12 to fully open position. When amedium size opening is desirable, the door member 14 is also swung toopen position, the same being first unlatched by moving the latch plate20 to the left and downwardly to a position to clear the lower edge ofthe door member 14. In swinging the door member 14 open, as shown inFigures 7 and 8, the keeper engaging cam member C engages the camsurface 51 of the keeper pocket of the combined keeper and catch memberD, and

opening of the door member 13 is obstructed by the catch presented bythe wall 53.

To provide the maximum size door opening, both the door members 13 and14 are opened, in addition to the door 12 being opened. To accomplishthis, the door member 14 is swung outwardly from the position shown inFigure 6 to that shown in Figure 7, thereby forcing the door member 13partly out or" the door opening. The latch element B is then manuallylifted to clear the catch wall 53 of the member D and the door member13, together with the door member 14, swung outwardly to fully openpositions.

To close the door 15, composed of the door members 13 and 14, the doormember 14 may be in folded position against the door member 13, as shownin Figure 8, or disposed in position at an angle to the door member 13,as indicated in Figure 7. With these 'door members in either of thesepositions, they are moved inwardly to bring the door member 13 to eitherthe position shown in Figure 8 or to that shown in Figure 7. With thedoor member 13 thus far closed, the door member 14 is swung inwardlythrough the position shown in Figure 7 to that shown in Figure 6, thecam member C thereby being engaged with the cam surface 51 of the memberD and the upper cam member 45 with the corresponding wall of the keepermember 55, camming the door member 13 tightly closed and holding itlocked. After the door member 14 has thus been swung to its fully closedposition, the latch plate 20 is engaged over its lower right hand cornerto hold the same in closed position, as shown in Figure 1.

I claim:

1. In a door structure for closing the door opening of a container, thecombination with a pair of door members connected for relative swingingmovement by a hinge member, including pivotally connected hinge leavesfixed, respectively, to said door members; of an eccentric keeperengaging projection integral with one of said hinge leaves; a keepermember having a laterally opening pocket within which said keeperengaging projection is engageable to force the door member to which theother hinge leaf is secured open and closed; a sliding latch elementmounted on said last named hinge leaf; and a cooperating catch elementfor said latch element, on said keeper member.

2. In a door structure for closing the door opening of a container, thecombination with a pair of door members connected for relative swingingmovement by a hinge member, including pivotally connected hinge leavesfixed, respectively, to said door members; of an eccentric keeperengaging projection integral with one of said hinge leaves; a keepermember having a laterally opening pocket within which said keeperengaging projection is engageable to force the door member to which theother hinge leaf is secured open and closed; a guide sleeve on said lastnamed hinge leaf integral therewith, said sleeve having a verticalguideway therein; a vertically slidable latch element guided in saidguide sleeve; and an upwardly opening pocket in said keeper memberwithin which said latch element is engageable for holding said lastnamed door member closed.

3. In a door structure for closing the door opening of a container, thecombination with a pair of 'door members connected for relative swingingmovement by a hinge member, including pivotally connected hinge leavesfixed, respectively, to said door members; of an eccentric keeperengaging projection integral with one of said hinge leaves; a keepermember having a laterally opening pocket within which said keeperengaging projection is engageable to force the door member to which theother hinge leaf is secured open and closed; a vertically slidablespring pressed latch element mounted on said last named hinge leaf; andan upwardly projecting abutment on said keeper member in back of whichsaid latch element is engageable to hold said last named door memberclosed.

4. In a door structure for closing the door opening of a container, thecombination with a pair of door members connected for relative swingingmovement by a hinge member, including pivotally connected hinge leavesfixed, respectively, to said door members; of an eccentric keeperengaging projection integral with one of said hinge leaves; a keepermember having a pocket within which said keeper engaging projection isengageable to force the door member to which the other hinge leaf issecured open and closed; a vertically slidable, downwardly springpressed latch element mounted on said last named hinge leaf; anoperating finger grip on said element for lifting the same to releasedposition; and an upwardly projecting catch on said keeper member in backof which said element is engageable to hold said last named door memberclosed.

5. A hinge for rotatably securing together two sections of anarticulated door comprising: a pair of leaves; a pivot connectingtogether said leaves for relative rotation; a keeper engaging lugcarried by one of said leaves for movement through an are centered uponthe axis of said pivot; a spring pressed latch carried by the other oneof said leaves for translatory movement in a path that is parallel tosaid axis and spaced therefrom, and a keeper engaged by said lug andlatch.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS697,225 Washburne Apr. 8, 1902 2,451,537 Dath Oct. 19, 1948 2,565,728Hopkins Aug. 28, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 411,714 Germany Apr. 3, 1925

